Flat tire

I've driven a car with brand new defender about 40 km, and found them easy rolling, and very well behaved. One of the marks I think of a good tire, you don't notice them much.

 

We had a set of Michelin Harmony, tread wear warranted for 120K kms, got to the wear bars at 60K. Michelin honoured it tho: the tire dealer presented the info, and we got a new set half off.

Nowadays tho it's futile, due to our use of snow tires about 4 months or more per year. Coupled with low use, we never wear out tires, they tend to "age out".

 

If you put on new tires and they DON'T "feel better, more "planted", quieter, etc., etc.", TAKE THEM BACK! New tires always make the world right, for at least a few months. Longer if they are actually good.

 

Just put Defenders XT's on our 2010. I like them a lot and agree with your assessment. However, they sometimes get a bad rap in other threads for losing a few MPG..but time will tell. I'm running the pressure pretty high on them ( 42/40 ) so maybe that will help some.

We have a 3500 mile road trip coming up in late July..so it will be interesting to see how they do.

 

Yeah please report.

 

That's what I will be interested to see, 1) what's the mileage drop (or increase) from them and 2) what pressure are they being set at?

I always ran my Gen 3 tires at about 40psi, and got better mileage and better handling from them. I want to start pushing my crappy Toyo's a bit to help with the heat issues.

@bwilson4web one thing to note about weather here in So Cal, USC/Downtown readings are not representative of the area. LA's area is huge, and I've had instances where at the beach it will 71* and drive for 35 minutes into one of the valleys and it's 89*. So Downtown LA is relatively mild in comparison to the valleys (with the beach being even more moderate). The swing in Hi and Lo's yesterday at my house in the foothills, was 93* high yesterday afternoon and this morning it was 63*, that's life in SoCal.

 

I have the Toyos on my Prime and pressure set to 42/41 ... always had it high on my Gen3 as well.

 

We'll be heading into the typical Alabama summer weather soon enough so I'll more closely track the tires.

Bob Wilson

 

Do I take a chance with my Toyo tires during my upcoming trip thru Arizona and New Mexico? (My regular Prius came with a donut spare in the trunk).

Debating whether to throw on a new set of Michelin tires, or just run the crap out of my OEM Toyo tires. They haven't been a bad tire, they are just noisy as all heck. But I think I may have solved that, now I just roll down a window and let all the road noise in! That drowns out the tire noise.

(The cheap guy in me, hates to part with four tires that are only 17 months old. And Soldier Guy got 45,000 miles out of his Toyo's and they still looked good.)

 

I would suggest you re-think that strategy while driving through Arizona

 

We don't have enough data to call that question.

Bob Wilson

 

I'm actually more concerned with getting a cracked windshield.

I would like to believe, that Toyota would not purposely and knowingly put an inferior set of tires on a Prius. Some owners report that they love their Toyo tires. And ANY tire, regardless of brand or price or reputation, can still get a flat.

 

I'm a cheap guy too. I would use the tires until they are worn out. I could never bring myself to get rid of serviceable tires. I would familiarize myself with the equipment provided in your Prius, if you do get a flat tire. Also, I'd probably buy a repair plug kit as a backup plan. I've used these plugs many times with no problems. In 50 years of driving, I've only had one instance of a tire being damaged so badly that it had to be replaced and the tires are much better than they were years ago.

 

People get noisier when they get older too. That's also what I have heard. ha!